Bay State Monthly, Volume I, No. 2, February, 1884 by Various

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And when he heard the story,--how the child had come and fled,--
"This is my greatest triumph" (with tears the maestro said),
"For no gift of king or princes, no praise could please me more.
Than this living mat of flowers a child laid at my door."

* * * * *

THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH IN MASSACHUSETTS.

By Thomas W. Bicknell, LL.D.

The act of banishment which severed Roger Williams from the
Massachusetts Colony, in 1635, was the means of _advancing_, rather
than _hindering_, the spread of the so-called _heresies_ which
he so bravely advocated. As the persecutions which drove the disciples
of Christ from Jerusalem were the means of extending the cause of
Christianity, so the principles of toleration and of soul-liberty were
strengthened by opposition, in the mind of this apostle of freedom of
conscience in the New World. His Welsh birth and Puritan education made
him a bold and earnest advocate of whatever truth his conscience
approved, and he went everywhere "preaching the word" of individual
freedom. The sentence of exile could not silence his tongue, nor destroy
his influence. "The divers new and dangerous opinions" which he had
"broached and divulged," though hostile to the notions of the clergy and
the authorities of Massachusetts Bay, were at the same time quite
acceptable to a few brave souls, who, like himself, dared the censures,
and even the persecutions, of their brethren, for the sake of liberty of
conscience.

The dwellers in old Rehoboth were the nearest white neighbors of Roger
Williams and his band at Providence. The Reverend Samuel Newman was the
pastor of the church in this ancient town, having removed with the first
settlers from Weymouth in 1643. Learned, godly, and hospitable, as he
was, he had not reached the "height of that great argument" concerning
human freedom; and while he cherished kindly feelings toward the
dwellers at Providence, he evidently feared the introduction of their
sentiments among his people. The jealous care of Newman to preserve what
he conscientiously regarded as the purity of religious faith and polity
was not a sufficient barrier against the teachings of the founder of
Rhode Island.

Although the settlers of Plymouth Colony cherished more liberal
sentiments than their neighbors of the Bay Colony, and sanctioned the
expulsion of Mr. Williams from Seekonk only for the purpose of
preserving peace with those whom Blackstone called "the Lord Bretheren,"
yet they guarded the prerogatives of the ruling church order as worthy
not only of the _respect_, but also the _support_, of all.
Rehoboth was the most liberal, as well as the most loyal, of the
children of Plymouth; but the free opinions which the planters brought
from Weymouth, where an attempt had already been made to establish a
Baptist church, enabled them to sympathize strongly with their neighbors
across the Seekonk River. "At this time," says Baylies, "so much
indifference as to the support of the clergy was manifested in Plymouth
Colony, as to excite the alarm of the other confederated colonies. The
complaint of Massachusetts against Plymouth on this subject was laid
before the Commissioners, and drew from them a severe reprehension.
Rehoboth had been afflicted with a severe schism, and by its proximity
to Providence and its plantations, where there was a universal
toleration, the practice of free inquiry was encouraged, and principle,
fancy, whim, and conscience, all conspired to lessen the veneration for
ecclesiastical authority." As the "serious schism" referred to above led
to the foundation of the first Baptist church within the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, on New Meadow Neck in Old Swanzey, it is worthy of record
here. The leader in this church revolt was Obadiah Holmes, a native of
Preston, in Lancashire, England. He was connected with the church in
Salem from 1639 till 1646, when he was excommunicated, and removing with
his family to Rehoboth, he joined Mr. Newman's church. The doctrines and
the discipline of this church proved too severe for Mr. Holmes, and he,
with eight others, withdrew in 1649, and established a new church by
themselves.

Mr. Newman's irascible temper was kindled into a persecuting zeal
against the offending brethren, and, after excommunicating them, he
aroused the civil authorities against them. So successful was he that
four petitions were presented to the Plymouth Court; one from Rehoboth,
signed by thirty-five persons; one from Taunton; one from all the
clergymen in the colony but two, and one from the government of
Massachusetts. How will the authorities at Plymouth treat this first
division in the ruling church of the colony? Will they punish by severe
fines, by imprisonment, by scourgings, or by banishment? By neither, for
a milder spirit of toleration prevailed, and the separatists were simply
directed to "refrain from practices disagreeable to their brethren, and
to appear before the Court."

In 1651, some time after his trial at Plymouth, Mr. Holmes was arrested,
with Mr. Clarke, of Newport, and Mr. Crandall, for preaching and
worshiping God with some of their brethren at Lynn. They were condemned
by the Court at Boston to suffer fines or whippings. Holmes refused to
pay the fine, and would not allow his friends to pay it for him, saying
that "to pay it would be acknowledging himself to have done wrong,
whereas his conscience testified that he had done right." He was
accordingly punished with thirty lashes from a three-corded whip, with
such severity, says Governor Jenks, "that in many days, if not some
weeks, he could take no rest but as he lay upon his knees and elbows,
not being able to suffer any part of his body to touch the bed whereon
he lay." Soon after this, Holmes and his followers moved to Newport, and
on the death of the Reverend Mr. Clarke, in 1652, he succeeded him as
pastor of the First Baptist Church in that time. Mr. Holmes died at
Newport in 1682, aged seventy-six years.

The persecution offered to the Rehoboth Baptists scattered their
church, but did not destroy their principles. Facing the obloquy
attached to their cause, and braving the trials imposed by the civil
and ecclesiastical powers, they must wait patiently God's time of
deliverance. That their lives were free from guile, none claim. That
their cause was righteous, none will deny; and while the elements
of a Baptist church were thus gathering strength on this side of the
Atlantic, a leader was prepared for them, by God's providence, on the
other. In the same year that Obadiah Holmes and his band established
their church in Massachusetts, in opposition to the Puritan order,
Charles I, the great English traitor, expiated his "high crimes and
misdemeanors" on the scaffold, at the hands of a Puritan Parliament.
Then followed the period of the Commonwealth under Cromwell, and then
the Restoration, when "there arose up a new king over Egypt, who knew
not Joseph." The Act of Uniformity, passed in 1662, under the sanction
of Charles II, though a fatal blow at the purity and piety of the
English Church, was a royal blessing to the cause of religion in
America. Two thousand bravely conscientious men, who feared God more
than the decrees of Pope, King, or Parliament, were driven from their
livings and from the kingdom. What was England's great loss was
America's great gain, for a grand tidal wave of emigration swept
westward across the Atlantic to our shores. Godly men and women, clergy
and laity, made up this exiled band, too true and earnest to yield a
base compliance to the edict of conformity. For thirteen years here the
Dissenters from Mr. Newman's church waited for a spiritual guide, but
not in vain.

How our Baptist brethren here conducted themselves during these years,
and the difficulties they may have occasioned or encountered, we know
but little. Plymouth, liberal already, has grown more lenient towards
church offenders in matters of conscience. Mr. John Brown, a citizen of
Rehoboth, and one of the magistrates, has presented before the Court his
scruples at the expediency of coercing the people to support the
ministry, and has offered to pay from his own property the taxes of all
those of his townsmen who may refuse their support of the ministry. This
was in 1665. Massachusetts Bay has tried to correct the errors of her
sister colony on the subject of toleration, and has in turn been rebuked
by her example.

JOHN MYLES.

Leaving the membership awhile, let us cross the sea to Wales to find
their future pastor and teacher--John Myles.

Wales had been the asylum for the persecuted and oppressed for many
centuries. There freedom of religious thought was tolerated, and from
thence sprung three men of unusual vigor and power: Roger Williams,
Oliver Cromwell, and John Myles. About the year 1645, the Baptists in
that country who had previously been scattered and connected with other
churches, began to unite in the formation of separate churches, under
their own pastors. Prominent among these was the Reverend Mr. Myles, who
preached in various places with great success, until the year 1649, when
we find him pastor of a church which he organized in Swansea, in South
Wales. It is a singular coincidence that Mr. Myles's pastorate at
Swansea, and the separation of the members from the Rehoboth church, a
part of whom aided in establishing the church in Swanzey, Massachusetts,
occurred in the same year.

During the Protectorate of Cromwell, all Dissenters enjoyed the largest
liberty of conscience, and, as a result, the church at Swansea grew from
forty-eight to three hundred souls. Around this centre of influence
sprang up several branch churches, and pastors were raised up to care
for them. Mr. Myles soon became the leader of his denomination in Wales,
and in 1651 he was sent as the representative of all the Baptist
churches in Wales to the Baptist ministers' meeting, at Glazier's Hall,
London, with a letter, giving an account of the peace, union, and
increase of the work. As a preacher and worker he had no equal in that
country, and his zeal enabled him to establish many new churches in his
native land. The act of the English Saint Bartholomew's Day, in 1662,
deprived Mr. Myles of the support which the government under Cromwell
had granted him, and he, with many others, chose the freedom of exile to
the tyranny of an unprincipled monarch. It would be interesting for us
to give an account of his leave-taking of his church at Swansea, and of
his associates in Christian labor, and to trace out his passage to
Massachusetts, and to relate the circumstances which led him to search
out and to find the little band of Baptists at Rehoboth. Surely some law
of spiritual gravitation or affinity, under the good hand of God, thus
raised up and brought this under-shepherd to the flock thus scattered in
the wilderness. Nicholas Tanner, Obadiah Brown, John Thomas, and others,
accompanied Mr. Myles in his exile from Swansea, Wales. The first that
is known of them in America was the formation of a Baptist church at the
house of John Butterworth in Rehoboth, whose residence is said to have
been near the Cove in the western part of the present town of East
Providence. Mr. Myles and his followers had probably learned at Boston,
or at Plymouth, of the treatment offered to Holmes and his party, ten
years before, and his sympathies led him to seek out and unite the
elements which persecution had scattered. Seven members made up this
infant church, namely: John Myles, pastor, James Brown, Nicholas Tanner,
Joseph Carpenter, John Butterworth, Eldad Kingsley, and Benjamin Alby.
The principles to which their assent was given were the same as those
held by the Welsh Baptists, as expounded by Mr. Myles. The original
record-book of the church contains a list of the members of Mr. Myles's
church in Swansea, from 1640 till 1660, with letters, decrees,
ordinances, etc., of the several churches of the denomination in England
and Wales. This book, now in the possession of the First Baptist Church
in Swanzey, Massachusetts, is probably a copy of the original Welsh
records, made by or for Mr. Myles's church in Massachusetts, the
sentiments of which controlled their actions here.

Of the seven constituent members, only one was a member of Myles's
church in Wales--Nicholas Tanner. James Brown was a son of John Brown,
both of whom held high offices in the Plymouth colony. Mr. Newman and
his church were again aroused at the revival of this dangerous sect, and
they again united with the other orthodox churches of the colony in
soliciting the Court to interpose its influence against them, and the
members of this little church were each fined five pounds, for setting
up a public meeting without the knowledge and approbation of the Court,
to the disturbance of the peace of the place,--ordered to desist from
their meeting for the space of a month, and advised to remove their
meeting to some other place where they might not prejudice any other
church. The worthy magistrates of Plymouth have not told us how these
few Baptist brethren "disturbed the peace" of quiet old Rehoboth. Good
old Rehoboth, that roomy place, was not big enough to contain this
church of seven members, and we have to-day to thank the spirit of
Newman and the order of Plymouth Court for the handful of seed-corn,
which they cast upon the waters, which here took root and has brought
forth the fruits of a sixty-fold growth.

From a careful reading of the first covenant of the church, we judge
that it was a breach of ecclesiastical, rather than of civil, law, and
that the fines and banishment from the limits of Rehoboth were imposed
as a preventive against any further inroads upon the membership of Mr.
Newman's church. In obedience to the orders of the Court, the members of
Mr. Myles's church looked about for a more convenient dwelling-place,
and found it as near to the limits of the old town and their original
homes as the law would allow. Within the bounds of Old Swanzey,
Massachusetts, in the northern part of the present town of Barrington,
Rhode Island, they selected a site for a church edifice. The spot now
pointed out as the location of this building for public worship is near
the main road from Warren by Munro's Tavern to Providence, on the east
side of a by-way leading from said road to the residence of Joseph G.
West, Esq. A plain and simple structure, it was undoubtedly fitted up
quickly by their own labor, to meet the exigency of the times. Here they
planted their first spiritual home, and enjoyed a peace which pastor and
people had long sought for.

The original covenant is a remarkable paper, toned with deep piety and a
broad and comprehensive spirit of Christian fellowship.

HOLY COVENANT.

SWANSEY IN NEW ENGLAND.--A true coppy of the Holy Covenant the first
founders of Swansey Entred into at the first beginning and all the
members thereof for Divers years.

Whereas we Poor Creatures are through the exceeding Riches of Gods
Infinite Grace Mercyfully snatched out of the Kingdom of darkness and by
his Infinite Power translated into the Kingdom of his dear Son, there to
be partakers with all Saints of all those Priviledges which Christ by
the Shedding of his Pretious Blood hath purchased for us, and that we do
find our Souls in Some good Measure wrought on by Divine Grace to desire
to be Conformable to Christ in all things, being also constrained by the
matchless love and wonderfull Distinguishing Mercies that we Abundantly
Injoy from his most free grace to Serve him according to our utmost
capacitys, and that we also know that it is our most bounden Duty to
Walk in Visible Communion with Christ and Each other according to the
Prescript Rule of his most holy word, and also that it is our undoubted
Right through Christ to Injoy all the Priviledges of Gods House which
our souls have for a long time panted after. And finding no other way at
Present by the all-working Providence of our only wise God and gracious
Father to us opened for the Injoyment of the same. We do therefore after
often and Solemn Seeking to the Lord for Help and direction in the fear
of his holy Name, and with hands lifted up to him the most High God,
Humbly and freely offer up ourselves this day a Living Sacrifice unto
him who is our God in Covenant through Christ our Lord and only Savior
to walk together according to his revealed word in the Visible Gospel
Relation both to Christ our only head, and to each other as
fellow-members and Brethren and of the Same Household faith. And we do
Humbly praye that that through his Strength we will henceforth Endeavor
to Perform all our Respective Duties towards God and each other and to
practice all the ordinances of Christ according to what is or shall be
revealed to us in our Respective Places to exercise Practice and Submit
to the Government of Christ in this his Church! viz. furthur Protesting
against all Rending or Dividing Principles or Practices from any of the
People of God as being most abominable and loathsome to our souls and
utterly inconsistent with that Christian Charity which declare men to be
Christ's Disciples. Indeed further declaring in that as Union in Christ
is the sole ground of our Communion, each with other, So we are ready to
accept of, Receive too and hold Communion with all such as by a judgment
of Charity we conceive to be fellow-members with us in our head Christ
Jesus tho Differing from us in Such Controversial Points as are not
absolutely and essencially necessary to salvation. We also hope that
though of ourselves we are altogether unworthy and unfit thus to offer
up ourselves to God or to do him a--or to expect any favor with, or
mercy from Him. He will graciously accept of this our free will offering
in and through the merit and mediation of our Dear Redeemer. And that he
will imploy and emprove us in his service to his Praise, to whom be all
Glory, Honor, now and forever, Amen.

The names of the persons that first joyned themselves in the Covanant
aforesaid as a Church of Christ,

JOHN MYLES, Elder,
JAMES BROWN,
NICHOLAS TANNER,
JOSEPH CARPENTER,
JOHN BUTTERWORTH,
ELDAD KINGSLEY,
BENJAMIN ALBY.

The catholic spirit of Mr. Myles soon drew to the new settlement on New
Meadow Neck many families who held to Baptist opinions, as well as some
of other church relations friendly to their interests. The opposition
which their principles had awakened, had brought the little company into
public notice, and their character had won for them the respect and
confidence of their neighbors.

The Rehoboth church had come to regard Mr. Myles and his followers with
more kindly feelings, and, in 1666, after the death of the Reverend Mr.
Newman, it was voted by the town that Mr. Myles be invited to "preach,
namely: once in a fortnight on the week day, and once on the Sabbath
day." And in August of the same year the town voted "that Mr. Myles
shall still continue to lecture on the week day, and further on the
Sabbath, if he be thereunto legally called."

This interchange of pulpit relations indicates a cordial sentiment
between the two parishes, which is in striking contrast to the hostility
manifested to the new church but three years before, when they were
warned out of the town, and suggests the probable fact that animosities
had been conquered by good will, and that sober judgment had taken the
place of passionate bigotry.

* * * * *

CHURCH SERVICES IN PURITAN TIMES.

_The Elders' Advice in Matrimonial Matters._

From the Baptist Church records copied from the Welsh, which were
brought from Swansea, Wales, by the Reverend John Myles, we quote, as
follows:--

"The Sabbath meeting shall begin at 8 A.M., and on the fourth day of the
weeke begins at nine of the Clock."...

"That one brother extemporize in Welsh for an hour, and after the said
Welsh brother there shall be a publick sermon to the world, after this
breaking bread."...

"That such brethren or sisters as shall any way hereafter intend to
change their calling or condition of life by marriage or otherwise, do
propose their cases to the elders or ablest brethren of the church, to
have council from before they make any engagements, and in all difficult
cases, and before all marriages, the churches council be taken therein."

* * * * *

THE RENT VEIL.

By Henry B. Carrington.

"And the veil of the temple was rent in twain."

I.

The Great I AM,--that Presence, Infinite,
Which wrought creation by the breath
Of Sovereign Will,--and in His Image bright,
Brought man to life, to dwell in Paradise,--
Took gracious pity on his lost estate,
When sin had marred that perfect image,
And Earth could pay no ransom for the soul.

II.

Jehovah,--God, effulgence bright,--august,--
In majesty supreme, from Heaven stooped down,
And through His wondrous love, ineffable,
Enshrined Himself within that sacred place,
Which, once in each revolving year,
The type of the Redeemer, promised,
Might dare approach, with awe, with offerings
For the sins of Israel's children.

III.

As but a day, four thousand years, when told,
With Him, who was, and is to be,--
Eternal--Three in One,--Omnipotent:--
Such was the span of ripening promise,
Until the hour matured, and Saving Grace,
The full Redemption offered,--by gift
Of Spotless purity,--His Only Son.

IV.

Within the "Holy Place," the High Priest bowed,
While dread Shekinah lingered,--(ne'er again
To yield to Jewish rite or sacrifice,
The boon of pardoned guilt, for blood of goats
Or bullocks, without blemish);--and bowed,
While yet the echoes of his voice, profane,
Still quivered in the midnight air,--floating
Upward toward the Great White Throne,--crying,
O,--crucify the spotless Son of Man,
And let Barabbas, son of sin, go free.

V.

Where direst portents, solitude profound,--
Place, awful with the bleaching types of death,
Had published forth Golgotha's cruel name.
The stately High Priest, from the "Holy Place"
Approached, to consummate prophetic crime,--
To fill the measure of Judea's sin,--
And bring Messiah to a dying race.

VI.

"IT IS FINISHED."

VII.

O,--light of day, whose now averted face,
As ne'er before, withholds thy cheer from man!--
O,--quaking earth, whose bed of solid rock,
Is shivered by some pang of awful ill!--
O,--graves, once sealed o'er loved ones, laid aside,
To answer only at Archangels' call!--
What tragedy of creation's Master;--
What spell upon creation's normal peace;--
What overturn of laws immutable;--
What contradictions in the mind Supreme;
Have wrought this pregnant ruin,--earth throughout!

VIII.

O,--priest, whose ministrations, laid aside
To bring fulfillment of the fearful curse
Upon thy race, have now that curse assured,--
Look back!--and see the altar, bared to view
Of vulgar herd and phrenzied populace.
"_The veil in twain is rent_,"--and never more
Shall dread Shekinah show Himself to thee;--
But where each humble soul, with sin oppressed,
Lifts up the cry of penitential grief,
A temple shall be found,--and deep within,
Shall dwell that sacred Presence,--evermore.

* * * * *

THE FIRST SCHOOLMASTER OF BOSTON.

By Elizabeth Porter Gould.

When Agassiz requested to go down the ages with no other name than
"Teacher," he not only appropriately crowned his own life-work, but
stamped the vocation of teaching with a royalty which can never be
gainsaid. By this act he dignified with lasting honor all those to whom
the name "Teacher," in its truest meaning, can be applied.

In this work of teaching, one man stands out in the history of New
England who should be better known to the present generation. He was a
benefactor in the colonial days when education was striving to keep her
lamp burning in the midst of the necessary practical work which engaged
the attention of most of the people of that time. His name was Ezekiel
Cheever. When a young man of twenty-three years, he came from
London--where he was born January 25, 1614--to Boston, seven years after
its settlement. The following spring he went to New Haven, where he soon
married, and became actively engaged in founding the colony there. Among
the men who went there the same year was a Mr. Wigglesworth, whose son,
in later years, as the Reverend Michael Wigglesworth, gave an account of
Mr. Cheever's success in the work of teaching, which he began soon after
reaching the place. "I was sent to school to Mr. Ezekiel Cheever, who at
that time taught school in his own house, and under him in a year or two
I profited so much through y'e blessing of God, that I began to make
Latin & to get forward apace."

Mr. Cheever received as a salary for two or three years twenty pounds;
and in 1643, while receiving this salary, his name is sixth in the list
of planters and their estates, his estate being valued only at twenty
pounds. In the year following, his salary was raised to thirty pounds
a year. This probably was an actual necessity, for his family now
consisted, besides himself and wife, of a son Samuel, five years old,
and a daughter Mary of four years. Ezekiel, born two years before, had
died. This son, Samuel, it may be said in passing, was graduated at
Harvard College in 1659, and was settled as a clergyman at Marblehead,
Massachusetts, where he died at the age of eighty-five, having been
universally esteemed during his long life.

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