The history of Warren, R.I., from the earliest times

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Preface

In the following pages there are some historical notices of a sacred succession of Independent Churches, in the Principality of Wales, who held the sentiments of the modern Baptists, in more or less purity, during the long lapse of the dark ages, and even from the first introduction of Christianity into Britain. It is the history of principles, rather than the names of sects, that has engaged our attention.

The author need make no apology for directing the attention of those of his brethren who enjoy literary leisure, and possess a religious spirit, to a subject always interesting whenever named, but which has been sadly neglected by scholars in the Baptist, and other evangelical persuasions. It is a most cherished and prevalent opinion, with the Welsh Baptists, that their distinguishing principles have been preserved in their purity, by the Cambrian people, through all the ages from the first

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introduction of Christianity into their Island. That God has had his scattered and hidden people in Piedmont and Holland, as well as in Wales, through the night of the dark ages, there can be no doubt. But it seems to have been a part of His wise arrangement for their preservation, that they should be kept in obscurity, and that obscurity now makes it very difficult to t?ace their history. What we find concerning them in the historical works accessible to the general reader, are but the scattered fragments thrown by their enemies into contempt. It is not too much to say, that the history of Cambro-British Christianity is yet to be written. Adequate attention has never yet been given to the purely Cambrian portion of British history. The causes of this neglect can readily be assigned. Among these reasons is the fact stated by Sir James iMackintosh : " The history of this native race has not yet been extracted from fable; nor has any Welshman yet arisen who has made such attempts to recover the perhaps still remaining materials, as will warrant us in asserting that they have altogether perished. An early conquest damped the national feeling, which would have fondly clung to the slenderest fragment of such memorials, from the pursuit and preservation of which at the favorable time they were diverted by their long reliance on the legends of Geoffrey of Monmouth."

But we may safely hazard the assertion that the materials for the Ecclesiastic?! History of the old

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British Churches, are by no means lost. They are locked up in the yet untranslated Welsh language, and deposited in many an old Welsh book or manuscript, laid away in the archives of their abbies and parish churches. Of the most authentic and valuable writers among the Welsh Baptists, Joshua Thomas' History of the Welsh Baptists, is the most accessible : but even of this work, only some meagre portions, imperfectly translated,, have appeared in the English language.

All that has been attempted, in the following allusions to Cambro-British Christianity, has been a rapid bird's eye view of a few prominent facts, chiefly derived from such authorities as Ivimey's History of the Baptists ; Robinson's Ecclesiastical Researches, and Crosby's History of the Enghsh Baptists.

Abundant references could have been made to facts in the Civil History of the Welsh, in works which are accessible to the author ; such as Powell's History of Wales, exhibiting the succession of the Princes of Wales, from. Cadwallader the last king, to Llewelyn, the last prince of British blood; written originally in British, by Caradoc, of Llancavan: Published in English by Dr. Powell : Also, a Sketch of the early history of the ancient Cymry, from the year 700 B. C. to A. D. 500. 8vo. London, 1803. Also, the History of Wales, with an x\ppendix, in Nine Books. By Rev. William Wanington. London, A. D. 1786-

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But the abundant materials in these, and in similar works could be brought into but very little requisition, in a brief historical sketch, such as this pretends to be, the only object of which is to take a rapid glance at the order of events as they stand associated in the connexion between this quiet village church and the ancient churches of the British race, on another continent. Had pastoral duties afforded the requisite leisure for such a service, the writer would gladly have penetrated further into the Aboriginal history of this vicinity, and have exhibited at greater length many facts, of more than a local interest, which are intimately associated with the events which led to the settlement of this Town, and the organization of this Church. Regretting both the fact of the hitherto sad neglect of our local history, and the unwritten memorials of the worthy men who deserved a higher meed of praise than such a passing notice ; and lamenting his inability to present this Discourse in a better form, it is given, such as it is, as a token of respect to the members of the Church and Congregation under his pastoral care, by their sincere friend,

THE AUTHOR.

Warren, July, 1845.

MATTHEW XXIII : ».

«« One is your Master, even Christ : and all yb ARE Brethren."

It is difficult, perhaps impossible, to give a summary of Christianity, in a few points af doctrine, expressed in a few words. The highest efforts of sanctified genius and the greatest powers of human expression, when employed in defining and classifying within a small com.pass, the peculiarities of the Gospel, have been attended with perplexity and dissatisfaction.

The Author of our Religion, " who spake as never man spake," taught the spiritual truths he revealed, in language which could only have been dictated by the clearest conceptions of his all-originating mind. He connected eternity with time, threw a strong and burning light upon the shadows of futurity, and brought home to the bosoms of men, a present apprehension of the substantial realiticsof the invisible world

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The Doctrines he revealed were simple and yet sublime; the Worship he established was spiritual and purifying; the Conduct he required was holy and benevolent.

His Religion viewed as a collective system, may be considered doctrinally, as to what we are to believe, experimentally, as to what we are to feel, practically, as to what we are to do. The equal blending of doctrine, feeling and action, in the high exercise of a well proportioned symmetry, is the human realization of the great Idea developed in the religion of Jesus Christ.

All religion grows out of a sense of human want ; and man is therefore disposed to be a religious being.

The object for which we have assembled today, is connected with religion. To its sacred purposes we have now convened to dedicate this Building, as a tribute of grateful homage to Almighty God, and of adoring love to our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

The declaration of the objects implied in this design, would be an appropriate theme for our j)resent discourse. The Doctrines we believe, the Feelings we cherish, and the Ends we pro-

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pose to accomplish, might naturally be exhibited in connexion with this solemn occasion. But the statement of our Religious Faith, and the illustration of our cherished Designs, could not be satisfactorily compressed within the limits of time assigned for this exercise.

It is therefore fitting and necessary that we should restrict our views to a smaller compass, and confine our attention to the facts that belong to our present position.

But the Present is connected with the Past, by the ties of religious as well as of civil relationships. The current of time is rapidly sweeping by, and we stand on a spot where we can look back upon the stream as it rushes up to the present, and down its course as it glides away in its onward progress to the ocean of eternity. The memories of the past come rushing up before us, and the dim visions of the future rise unbidden to our view.

We stand on a spot hallowed by many ai> association of ^Qcrcd and thriUing iniQrtst,

It is well for us, now that we have retired for a while from the hum of business, and the common interests of secular life, to lift the vail that hides the Past, and trace the line of events, which, as human causes, have produced the re-' suits of the Present. " God lives in history," and History is no less '' Philosophy teaching by example," than the voice of God teaching by his Providence.

I have said that we are assembled here in contemplation of Religion in its relations to former times; and these relations, as they affect us personally and socially, are found intermixed v/ith all the details of the civil and religious History of the generations that hav-e preceded us.

It was the love of Religion, and of Religious Liberty, that put in motion the train of events which led to the formation of our social institutions and brought us together on the spot of ground, and the point of time, we now occupy. There can be no proper apprehension of our past history, whether we consider ourselves as a religious Society, as a part of this Town or State, or of the New-England Community, without investigating those religious causes, which led to the formation of civil and religious society on this Western Continent.

While the history of this Church and^Town, partakes of much that is common to the general characteristics of New-England, it is more signally distinguished by the history of peculiar principles, in which our social existence originated, and with which we have always been identified. To trace the history of these pe-f culiar principles, and the events with which they were connected, is therefore the particular object of the present Discourse.

The Principles which I design to illustrate historically, may be reduced to three :

1. Liberty of Conscience in Religious con'

cerns.

2. The Independence of each Christian

Church and its separate existence from Civil Government,

3. The admission of only such persons into

the Church as profess experimental Christian Faith^ by the ordinance of Baptism y in the form of Immersion.

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These three religious principles were identified with the origin of this community, and were so combined in the belief of the ancestors of this Church and Town, that in their estimation, the presence of one of them implied the necessary union of the others, and the rejection of one, in its logical and natural tendency, ■vitiated or excluded the whole : — all standing or falling together.

These views of Faith were considered by the forefathers of this Church, as they are believed by us, their representatives and successors, to 'be identical with the Doctrine and Worship of the Apostolic Churches.

It should be distinctly understood, as it is fully admitted, that these principles do not constitute the Summary, nor even the most considerable part, of the Christian System. Nor is it pretended that each and every one of them, or all of them together, are peculiar alone to the Religious Communion with which we stand connected, in distinction from all other names and orders of Christian people ; and it is the peculiar glory of Evangelical Christianity in the present age, that the lines of distinctive difference between the various orders of Protestants, mSTORICAL DISCOURSE. 15

are less visible than in most preceding period* since the Reformation of Luther. At no time probably, since the first two centuries of the Christian Church, has there been so deep and general a disposition among earnest-minded Christians to derive their'entire faith and practice from the New-Testament alone, as at the present. All Evangelical denominations seem disposed to act upon the principle, that the Bible alone is the religion of Protestants.

The claims of Tradition and Custom are sifted and reduced to their true merits ; and the authority of the Inspired Scriptures is elevated above the ordinances of men. And hence there is less to distinguish the leading evangelical denominations from each other, than in former ages.

It is an occasion of thanksgiving on this auspicious day, that there are so many doctrines of fundamental importance in Religion, which we hold in common with the whole fraternity of Evangelical Protestants. And we trust that holding the unity of the Spirit, in the bonds of peace, we are still drawing closer together, disposed to act upon the apostolic precept, " Whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing."

These considerations being premised and understood, we shall be free from the charge of intending offence to any Christian sensibility, if we proceed to trace out the progress of the peculiar principles which characterized the origin and history of this church ; even if, in such illustrations there may be any occasion by way of contrast to point out the errors of other forms of Faith.

But it is not the history of a Sect, or the prevalence of a name, that we are in quest of, so much as the history oi principles. It should be a matter of small concern to any of us, as to the antiquity of our denominational appellatives ; — which in the case of almost every persuasion of Christians, have not been of their own selection, but most frequently bestowed on them in a way of reproach, by those who were their enemies. Such was the case with the Puritans, whose name was applied in contempt to a class of men of whom the world was not worthy ; — of the Methodists, whose zealous piety provoked the invention of a term by which

(he operations of religion on the passions, should be rendered opprobrious to the formal worldling or the proud hypocrite ; — of the Quakers, whose modest piety was charged upon them as a mark of servile fear; — and of the Baptists, whose primitive ordinance has characterized them with a name, they never preferred or selected, but which they are yet perfectly willing to bear.

The distinguishing principles to which I have adverted, as characterizing this Church in its origin and formation, are believed by us to be identical with the faith and practice of the Primitive Christians. Though they are not summed up in so many terms in the language of the Text, they are implied and embodied in those words of our Saviour, ** One is your Master even Christ : and all ye are brethren ;" — > words which are an appropriate motto for a Baptist Church.

There can be no relighn, without authority to enjoin it : and the doctrines of religion, to have any influence, must rest on authority of the highest order ; and the religion that is from God, has such authority. Jesus Christ pro^ claimed himself a's the only Mediator between li^^ HISTORICAL DISCOURSE.

God and man, and the only Lord of the hinnau conscience. When his disciples professed his name, they declared their allegiance to him, and their internal Faith, by public Baptism. This was the order in which Christ himself connected the conditions of obedience ; — '' He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved." And his inspired Apostles observed the same principles, in the same order. They always regarded Baptism as the outv/ard act of Internal Faith ; as the test-oath and naturalization act, by which a stranger and alien declared his allegiance to Christ his King, and became a naturalized citizen of the visible church. Thus the apostle Paul declares it, as the act of a soldier who has put on the regimentals of the army, into which he has been sworn : or as the act of a servant assuming the livery of the master, whom he has bound himself to serve : " For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, have put on Christ." Nay, the very method by which Baptism was administered, declared its significance and its binding obligation. It wavS a solemn act of burial in water, by which a man declared his belief of the burial and resurrection of Christ : his own deadness to the

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world, and his rising again to newness of life. "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death ? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death : that like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.'"'

Thus, each believer declared his own discipleship, to his own Master. What was required of one, was necessary for all. All therefore were received into the community of Brethren, on equal conditions.* There were no char-

*The church was in the beginning, a community of Brethren. All its members were taught of God ; and each possessed the liberty of drawing for himself from the Divine Fountain of life. (John vi. 45.) The Epistles, which then settled the great questions of doctrine, did not bear the pompous title of any single man, or ruler. We find from the holy Scriptures, that they began simply with these words : " The apostles, ciders and brethren, to our brethren." Acts xv. 123." — D\luhignr's Rcfonnafinrr, vol. 1, p. 17.

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tered or hereditary rights, attaching to any clasft or order. Each Christian Society was constituted on the basis of the social and moral equality of all its members, upon the professed Faith of each. There being no divinely appointed model of church constitution and government, given by Christ or his apostles, the disciples were left to their own discretion in arranging the details of each separate community, according to the customs of their particular age, or country. But the great fundamental principles of their Faith contained all the general outlines,. within which the particular arrangements of each Society must be necessarily embraced. Each church inherently possessed the authority to elect its own officers, who should act as the pastors, and official representatives of the body; to determine the regulations by which their affiiirs were to be governed, and the particular conditions of admitting, or rejecting members; — all subject however to the general outline-laws laid down by Christ and his inspired apostles. The churches, accordingly, which were formed during the life time of the apostles,, seem to have been nothing more than converted, or Christianized Synagogues, which in each case had been a separate and independent re--

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ligious society by itself.* So that when the whole, or the majority of the members of any particular Synagogue had become converted, they still continued the same organized body as before ; and they continued to use their former privilege of electing their own overseer, bishop, or pastor, and to choose deacons, stewards, or whatever other officers were necessary, for the executive management of their own in=-. ternal affairs.

Each Christian Church, therefore, became, or continued to be, a society or popular assembly, formed on the model of the previously existing Synagogue, having a free, voluntary and elective government, in the choice of its own officers, and inheriting within itself, all the elements of religious liberty. The pastor was simply the elected teacher, and moderator in their assemblies, holding no hereditary rights, but only primus inter pares, — the principal elected by his peers.

* See Lightfoot's Harmony of the New Test. Vol, III. p. 257. Also, Coleman's Primitive Church, pp. '.^3 — 47. Also, \Vhatolevs Kingdom of Christ, pji 78—83.

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The standard of all authority, was the recorded teachings of Christ himself, or the inspired epistles of the apostles, who alone held a higher rank, from their position as the witnesses of Christ's ministry and resurrection ; and they exercised a paramount authority as the infallible interpreters of the Divine Will. But the apostles themselves, disclaimed anything like the hereditary aristocracy of the Levitical priesthood ; and by their own sanction, they legalized the popular form of government in the Synagogue worship, as the mode of organization in the newly formed Christian Churches. They made not the slightest claims to an order of the Christian ministry, parallel or analagous, to the Levitical priesthood : nor did they incorporate into their worship, the elements of their national temple service, such as a sacrificing priest, the altar for sacrifice, the sacred vessels, or any of the glittering regalia of their ritual service. The only Priest they recognized was Jesus Christ, their ever-living intercessor ; the only sacrifices they olfered, were their own bodies and souls, a living sacri- Oce, as a voluntary and spiritual service, — the sacrifices of a pure heart and a benevolent life j

^oAiBssgiKeA^BstiexSj, liie^ ipos&es CLiiioir> ren, as independent, yet separate branches oi the one Spiritual Community, of which the Lord Jesus Christ, was the Invisible and Heavenly Head. Still with all this outward diversity in organization, they were all one in the fellowship of love and faith, holding the communion of the saints, united in spirit as different members of one body, or as brethren of the same great family. But with all their diversity of endowments, there was the unity of Religion. '' There were diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit : diversities of administrations, but the same Lord : diversities of operations, but it is the same God who worketh all in all. There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling : one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all : one Lord, one faith, one Baptism."

There was no visible representative, as the earthly head of each of these churches, or of all of them together : but Christ himself was the invisible Head of the universal, invisible church. His kingdom was indeed within the world, but it was not of the world. Though jHistorical discourse. 2^

each community possessed the organized form of a human society, it was yet not of the nature of an earthly kingdom ; as it was not originated for any earthly purpose, nor conducted on the principles of worldly policy. Those who were members of this spiritual society, formed for spiritual purposes, might yet in another capacity, be members of a secular society, formed for secular purposes : if they were scholars, they might belong to an Academy : if farmers, they might belong to an Agricultural Society : if they w^ere citizens of any particular country, they were to retain their citizenship^ *' rendering unto Caesar, the things that are Caesar's ; but rendering to God, the things that are God's ;" — but the authority of Caesar vras never to bind their conscience, nor their privileges as Christians ever to exempt them from the lawful claims of human government, within its own proper capacity. Christ Vv'as the Mas-* ter of all, as believers ; and to his own Master, every one was to stand or fall.

Such, in outline, were the simple principles which characterized the organization cf lh6 Christian church in its best and earliest days< tC HISTORICAL DISCOURSB,

This is not the time, nor the place to show how these distinguishing principles were gradually obscured and neutralized, and became intermixed with forms of doctrine and worship foreign to those of the original church. The faithful pen of History could easily trace the rise and progress of insidious errors, which insensibly stole in upon the unguarded church, and at length brought on the spiritual despotism, which in later times, reduced her to a servile allegiance to secular power. But without detailing the incidents of History, it is sufficient to show the progress of those three distinctive principles to which I have adverted, and which entered elementarily into the formation of the apostolic church, — the corruption of which paved the way for the subsequent admission of every form of error.

All the events of history, reduced to a simple analysis, show how insidious, but yet how operative, is the influence of a false principle, or of a true one, misapprehended. And as a general fact, perhaps it is true, that for want of candid and attentive reflection, the mass of men do jiol see the unsoundness of any false principle, till its working is fully developed in practice.

and they see the baleful results to which it actually and legitimately leads.

Thus in the latter part of the second century, a misconception of the supposed efficacy of Baptism, led to the conviction that it was essential to salvation ; and hence infants, and others who were in danger of dying without the benefit of the sacramental grace of Baptism, received the application of that crdmance, and were thus supposed to be absolved from the guilt of original sin. And those whose critical state of health would endanger their lives, by immersion, received the application of water in their s'.ck chamber, or on a dying bed : and thus was introduced Clinical Baptism,^ which, in time, prepared the way for a general substitution of the form of its administration. By thus admitting Infants to Baptism, the wall of partition between tho church and the wcrld was gradually taken down, and Christ's visible kingdom became a kingdom of this world. By exalting the efficacy of Baptism to a Sacra-

' So called from being administered onnhcd — from .a G;eek word, signifylnor couch .

mental Grace, the great doctrine of Justification by Faith, insensibly merged into the notion of a covenant ofworhs : and thence were entailed the devices of Popery, and the belief in works of Supererogation. Henceforward the Doctrine and Worship of ^the church declined together.

In the "same manner, the gradual elevation of the Bishop of Rome, led to a commanding supremacy over all the other churches in those territories that were lawfully subjected to the civil government of the Roman Empire : and the supremacy which the neighboring churches had at first voluntarily yielded to the enlightened oversight of the Roman Bishop, at length led to the usurpation of power, which by the unhappy concurrence of political events, re-^ suited in a Diocesan government, which superinduced the greater concentration of a 3Iefropolitan bishopric, and this was at last matured into the still higher pretensions o^di Patriarchal supervision, and the unlimited despotism of a universal Papal Hierarchy.

Henceforward, Christianity which was intended for the heart of man, became the servile creature of the State, and the instrument

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of her own undoing. Having ascended the throne of the Cassars, she assumed the purple and the diadem, and enrolled the legions of Rome among the hosts cf the faithful. Then the cross was lifted in the van of conquering armies, and was made the sanction of inquisitorial injustice. When the sword was once drawn in defence cf the cross, its scabbard Was thrown away, and for more than ten centuries it continued the scandal of religion, and the plague cf the w^orld.

But though the name of Christianity was applied by the temporal powders to the worst of purposes, and became the w^atchword for war tliroughout Europe, her pure spirit still lived in the hearts of thousands, and her enlightenincr influence was never lost, in any acre. Her conservative power may be clearly traced among some smaller or larger communities in every age and country cf nominal Christendom. The v^'itnesses for the truth, and the dissenters from the reigning apostasy of Antichrist, were always found among thousands of sequestered r!:roups of Christians, who loved the Gospel, Hud held it in its purity of Doctrine and of Worship : who arc known in liistorv by the name of Novatians at Rome, the Donatists in Africa, the Faulicians in Greece, the Cathari or Puritans in Italy : in all the south of Europe, in Germany and Holland, these Christians were knov/n as the Albigenses, Montenses, Waldenses and Anabaptists, — names not assumed by themselves, but applied in contempt by the dominant power of the papal church.

It would be easy to show, that while the long night of spiritual despotism brooded over Europe for so many centuries, the pure worship and simple doctrine of the Gospel were always preserved by a band of faithful witnesses : and its light can be clearly traced, sometimes in brighter, sometimes in feebler lines, from the very hrst dav.n of the star which guided the men of the East to the cradle of the Messiah.

Though her light was smothered and concealed in her prison house at Rome, — though, her sanctity was defiled and her authority desecrated, by those " who were at hate with prayer and studied curses," her living Spirit could not be quenched, and her dungeon was broken open by the strong arm of Luther, and she again stood forth in the immortal freshness pf youth and beauty. Its influence stopped

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not at the place or the time, that gave it birth. It restored man to mental independence and moral dignity, while at the same time it fitted him to retain this supremacy. We can trace its great principles henceforth animating and governing the events of all subsequent history.

It would be an easy and delightful task to trace the history of the principles of the apostolic and primitive churches, through various channels and by various names, in an unbroken line of succession, from the first communities of Brethren, down through the long; night of papal despotism, till they re-appear in ail their brightness and beauty, in modern times.

But the particular connexion which this Baptist Church sustains to the church of Christ in former ages, even back to the apostles' times, will enable us to delineate the progress of Christian principles, apart from all the churches on the Continent of Europe.