The following letter to the Rev. Dr.
Stennett, of London, describes the immediate results of the circular just
given:
"MIDDLEBORO', Oct. 9, 1773.
"Rev. And Dear Sir: As our
Association have chosen me to be their agent here, in the room of our beloved
friend, Mr. John Davis, deceased, I am set down to write you some answer to
yours of Aug. 6, 1772, addressed to him. The ill state of his health had induced him to
return to Pennsylvania before it arrived at Boston; it was sent after him, but
I suppose never reached him. For, with
Mr. David Jones, he set out on a visit to the western Indians, but was taken
sick near the Ohio, and after an illness of three weeks, died there, the 13th
of last December, in the thirty-sixth year of his age. A very just character was given him from
Philadelphia, in which are these words: 'He
was an entertaining companion, possessed of uncommon calmness of temper. In
preaching, he endeavored to reach the understanding of his audience. Educated in the genuine principles of
liberty, born under one of the happiest of civil constitutions, he felt with
the keenest sensibility for the oppressed, and when his duty called, with a
manly and virtuous boldness he defended them.' This is a true sketch of the character of that
valuable friend we mourn the loss of.
"Pennsylvania, his native colony,
enjoys that religious liberty which he soon found the want of here. Upon search, he found that our charter gives
equal religious liberty as well as theirs, and that what is called the
religious establishment in this Province stands only upon some laws made by the
Congregationalists to support their way, which [laws] happened not to be timely
discovered by the powers at home, but [which] are really in their nature
contrary to our charter. And when they
tried to call a Provincial Synod in 1725, an express was sent from the British
court against it, in which it was declared that their way was not established
here. Therefore Mr. Davis judged it to
be our duty to strike more directly at the root of our oppressions than we had
before done.
"And though he is taken from us,
yet the cause remains the same; and last May our committee were called together
at Boston, when we had late accounts of the sufferings of our brethren in
sundry places and in violation of the Pedobaptists' own laws; upon which we
wrote to all our churches to consider and to give their mind upon the affair. Accordingly, they sent in their thoughts to
our association at Medfield, Tuesday, September 7th; and though we were agreed
that our Legislature had no right to impose religious taxes upon us, yet some
doubted the expediency of our now refusing any compliance with their laws in
that respect; and since we were not all of a judgment in this case, they stood
against our coming to any vote upon it, lest our want of union therein should
give an advantage to our adversaries. Thus
matters labored all day Wednesday, until many of the brethren became very
uneasy about being thus held back. But
on Thursday morning, Mr. Stillman, who had been against our coming to a vote,
brought in the following paper, which was unanimously adopted:
1. That the mind of the association
respecting giving or not giving certificates, be taken by written vote, in
order to confine the difference which subsists among us on this matter, in the
association.
2. That those churches that agree to
neglect the law for the future, shall, in a spirit of meekness, plead as the
reason, that they cannot, in conscience, countenance any human laws that
interfere in the management of the kingdom of Christ, which is not of this
world.
3. That the churches which think it
expedient to give certificates for the present, be advised by letter how many
are of a contrary mind, and be desired to consider the matter against the next
association, and to unite with their brethren if possible.
4. That the churches allow each other
entire liberty, without any hard thoughts one of another.
5. That all the churches which shall be
called to suffer through the year, shall transmit an account of such sufferings
to their agent, to be made use of by him as may be thought best to subserve the
common cause.
6. That our true state, with what we
have transacted at this association, be sent to our agents in England, and
their opinion be requested by the next meeting of the churches.
7. That if any are called to suffer,
their sister churches be applied to, to assist them in their trouble.
"When we came to act upon the first
of these articles, there appeared thirty-four elders and brethren against
giving any more certificates, six for it, and three at a loss how to act. Then it was voted by all that an appeal to the
public, which I had read in part to them, should be examined by our committee
and then published. And our association
was dismissed in a very comfortable and happy manner, and all seemed well
pleased with what was done. The
following week our committee met at Boston and deliberately examined and
approved of our appeal, a copy of which I now send you. We were privately encouraged in this attempt
for religious liberty by several members of both houses of our great General
Court; and the state of people's minds of various ranks through New England is
such that I cannot but hope to obtain our freedom without a necessity of
appealing to his Majesty. The use of
force in religious affairs is become odious to great numbers besides our own
denomination, and that is increasing very fast.
"Thus, dear sir, I have given you
as concise and just an account of our state as I can; and we request the best
advice from yourself, Dr. Slewalen and Mr. Wallin, that you can give us. We are greatly obliged to you all for the
friendship and favors you have already shown us, especially concerning the case
of Ashfield, for which we hope and pray that God may abundantly reward you.
"By the printed minutes I send you,
it appears that we have one thousand one hundred and sixty-one church members
in our association, and I suppose there are full as many more within the
Provinces of Massachusetts and New Hampshire only; which are but two of the
four governments of New England; and full two-thirds of all those have been
baptized within these seventeen years; and the abundant evidence I have that
the pure doctrines of grace set home by the power of the divine Spirit, have
been the cause of it, affords me unspeakable satisfaction. Brother Hinds, who lives nine miles south of
me, has been favored with a glorious visitation this year, and he has baptized
four more since the meeting of the association. In such a new state and rapid increase of
churches, you, sir, must be sensible that we stand in great need of the best
assistance that can be had. I therefore
hope for some from yourself and brethren to be communicated to
Your unworthy brother
in gospel bonds,
Isaac Backus."
The "appeal" mentioned in this
letter was a pamphlet of sixty-two pages. After a preface designed to show that civil
government is conducive and even necessary to individual freedom, it lays down
the position "that God has appointed two kinds of government in the world,
which are distinct in their nature and ought never to be confounded together;
one of which is called civil, the other ecclesiastical government," and
then proceeds in the first section to specify "some essential points of
difference between them." The next
section shows how "civil and ecclesiastical affairs are blended together
among us, to the depriving of many of God's people of that liberty of
conscience which he has given them." At the close of this section an injurious
reproach is thus noticed: "Though many of us have expended ten or twenty
times as much in setting up and supporting that worship which we believe to be
right, as it would have cost us to have continued in the fashionable way, yet
we are often accused of being covetous for dissenting from that way, and
refusing to pay more money out of our little incomes, to uphold men from whom
we receive no benefit but rather abuse." Section third gives a brief account of what
the Baptists had suffered under the existing laws and of their reasons for
refusing any active compliance with them. These reasons, directed chiefly against the
giving of certificates, were substantially as follows: 1. "Because to give certificates implies
an acknowledgment that civil rulers have a right to set up one religious sect
above another; which they have not. 2.
Because civil rulers are not representatives in religious matters, and
therefore have no right to impose religious taxes. 3. Because such practice emboldens the actors
therein to assume God's prerogative; and to judge the hearts of those who do
not put into their mouths. 4. Because
the church is to be presented as a chaste virgin to Christ; and to place her
trust and love upon any other for temporal support, is playing the harlot, and
so the way to destroy all religion. 5.
Because the practice tends to envy, hypocrisy, and confusion, and so to the
ruin of civil society." 1
This put the
Baptists in a difficult spot. Their Congregationalist
oppressors were infringing on their liberty of conscience by compelling them by
force of civil law to provide financially for the state church with which they
had some theological disagreement. Yet
they were hesitant to reach out to London for redress since they were also in
agreement with their fellow countrymen in resisting the usurpations of the
mother country. What to do? Lord willing in my next post we’ll begin to
look at Backus’ efforts in defense of religious liberty.
Christ, not man, is King!
Dale
1) Alvah Hovey, A Memoir of the Life and Times of the Rev. Isaac Backus, A.M. (Boston, MA: Gould and Lincoln, 1859), p. 190-5.
